1999 Was 5th Hottest Year on Record

Despite the

cooling expected from the weather phenomenon La Niña, 1999 was still the fifth hottest year on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In related news, NOAA scientists suggest in an article in the March 1 issue of

Geophysical Research Letters that the string of record temperatures beginning in 1997 may be the start of a new and faster global warming trend—a “change point” in the rate of global warming. Observed temperature rises since 1976 indicate that “the average rate of global temperature increase since 1976 would have to be 3°C (5°F) per century,” according to a NOAA press release, compared with the 1.0°C to 3.5°C temperature rise projected for the 21st Century in the 1995

Second Assessment Report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.